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Waterfront restaurant approved for River Street

The River Street waterfront will feature a Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant as early as this fall.

The Savannah Historic District Board of Review approved architectural plans for the seafood chain store during Wednesday’s monthly meeting. The board first reviewed the proposal for the store to be built on the former Moran Towing Facility on River Street’s east end last month.

Joe’s Crab Shack representatives asked for a continuance during the February meeting to alter the plans after the design met with opposition and members of the public expressed concerns about its impact on river views.

The architectural issues were resolved in the month between meetings, with the project leaders, GDP Group, eliminating gables on the warehouse-like facade, simplifying the window layout and wrapping a dining porch around the building to the river side.

The changes did nothing to quell the public dissatisfaction with the impact the restaurant will have on pedestrian views from River Street. The building is two stories tall for much of its 120-foot length, and four Savannahians spoke out against the project.

The opposition including a spokesman for Ann West, who owns the building located across River Street from the site, and noted downtown real estate broker Celia Dunn.

“The size and capacity of the building exceeds anything we should have to deal with on our waterfront,” Dunn said. “The eastern end is the end that has not been destroyed and we’ve done a good job of keeping the river side clear. Think about the beauty.”

Another Savannah resident, Todd Nolan, argued against the two-story structure and the notion that the second floor is appropriate because warehouse-like buildings previously stood on the waterfront.

“One hundred and fifty years ago when people built buildings they didn’t care what it looked like,” he said. “We shouldn’t make the same mistake.”

The impact on sightlines falls beyond the Historic Review Board’s purview, argued board member Reed Engle, and the building will allow the site to “be more accessible to the general public than it has been” since Moran first set up a towing facility there in the 1970s.

Joe’s Crab Shack will be a good neighbor, said Traci O’Donaghue, who represents the property’s owner.

“We were selective in going with a tenant that will have a family atmosphere,” she said. “We understand the objections to the views but with Joes’s there you’re not going to have to deal with any sort of Mardi Gras-type activity.”

Work on the site, which will include demolition of the Moran Towing buildings, will begin as soon as permits can be acquired. The restaurant should open sometime this fall, the Joe’s Crab Shack representatives said.